


Interesting and Clever Painkillers

by CatKing_Catkin



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Banter, Campaign 01 (Critical Role), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flirting, Friendship, Gen, Injury Recovery, Introspection, Mention of maiming, Pointless, Shippy Gen, Trinket just wants to sleep, takes place during episode 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 06:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13698504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatKing_Catkin/pseuds/CatKing_Catkin
Summary: “Does your foot still hurt?”“Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the Third, half my foot is gone. Of course it hurts. It’s fucking agony.”As Vox Machina licks their wounds and takes a rest after escaping Emberhold Fortress, Percy and Vax find themselves on watch together. Vax isn't really feeling that watchful, however-  he's too busy trying to swallow down the pain that's lingering after his unfortunate brush with lava. Thankfully, Percy has sharp eyes, and notices in the end.Of course, he can't do much - it's always easier to break something than fix it, after all. But at least he can provide a few minutes of distraction, and maybe talk Vax out of a few bad ideas.Trinket, meanwhile, just wants these two ridiculous boys to shut up and get some rest.





	Interesting and Clever Painkillers

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm not very far into this series at all! I only just finished Episode 14. But bits and pieces of this conversation just kept floating around my head, and eventually this moment just demanded to be written. I hope you all enjoy!

“Have you ever considered getting into chemistry, Percy?”

Percy frowned faintly, looking up from his work. He and Vax were on guard for this chunk of the night, if it was even night. They were two who didn’t have magical energies to recover, after all. Sacrificing a few hours of sleep so that Pike could keep them going and Tiberius could clear their path was worth it, after all.

Percy was passing the time by cleaning his guns – it was familiar and mindless enough work that it kept his hands busy and his mind from slipping into a bored torpor. Vax…hadn’t actually been doing much for the past couple of hours, to the point where Percy wondered at times if he might have fallen asleep, slumped against Trinket. Vex had lent him her beloved bear to rest with after…recent events. She had damn near insisted, as fierce as Percy had ever seen her, and Vax had been helpless to refuse.

He looked up from his work to see the half-elf’s staring back at him. His eyes were luminous, reflecting some distant pinprick of light. Vax was indeed slumped against the snoring Trinket’s side, but still he looked surprisingly alert. That was a relief. Percy would have understood if Vax had been worn out, but it was always better to have another pair of eyes on guard.

He considered his words carefully before answering, but in the end, confusion won out. “I sort of thought I already was.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean _interesting_ chemistry.”

Percy frowned, and heard more than saw Vax smile as the half-elf carried on. “I mean, have you ever turned your attention to concocting things like healing potions? You’re a smart man, Percy, I’m sure you could figure it out, and in doing so save us collectively embarrassing ourselves at supply shops forever after.”

“Tempting,” Percy found himself forced to agree, nodding slowly. Their attempt to acquire what healing potions they currently possessed had been a bit embarrassing, even by Vox Machina’s standards. “Not sure it’s possible, though. I always thought magic was what made whatever's in a healing potion _heal_. Gunpowder is…different. It’s always easier to break something than fix it.”

“Mm, perhaps.” Vax sighed, audibly disappointed. “Perhaps you could at least come up with some interesting and clever painkillers, then? Always a need for those. Probably nothing magical about it. Just a matter of finding which mushrooms do the opposite of poisoning you.”

That was an odd request, even from Vax. It was odd enough to make Percy set down his pepperbox and shift to face the half-elf properly.

“Does your foot still hurt?”

“Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the Third, half my foot is _gone_. Of _course_ it hurts. It’s fucking _agony_.”

Percy froze, raising an eyebrow. Rationally, he could have _guessed_ as much, of course, but this was the first time he had actually heard the pain creeping into Vax’s voice. It was subtle, a tense, taut vibration thrumming beneath the jokes. But here in the quiet, with just Percy awake to hear it, the pain was definitely _there_.

Even after they’d first pulled him out of the magma, Vax had been calm and, honestly, worryingly quiet. That hadn’t been a surprise, in and of itself. Percy knew shock when he saw it. But then Keyleth and Pike had gone to work on his half-melted foot and eased some of the damage and somehow Percy had thought they had taken the pain with it, especially since Vax had seemed to bounce back so quickly.

He could see now that they hadn’t been so lucky, however. Or, more accurately, he could hear it now. There was a harsh and slightly ragged edge to Vax’s breathing.

“…don’t you think you should have said something?”

Sitting a bit closer now, he thought he could see Vax’s lips quirk up in a smile. “I thought I just did.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Of course I do. But to what end? Everyone who could do something has done all they can, for now. Whingeing about my foot would only waste my energy and theirs’ – and there seems to be increasingly little of that to go around.” He sighed, and Percy could tell Vax was trying to make it dramatic to hide how tired the sound was. “I suppose, by that logic, I shouldn’t have even said anything to you, but you seem as though you can keep a secret, Percy. Almost as well as Trinket here.” He patted the bear’s furry side, and Trinket replied by letting out a snort in his sleep.

And sometimes pain just couldn’t be kept quiet a moment longer. And if you didn’t want to be driven mad and screaming with it, you had to find something, or someone, to turn to.

Percy shifted a little nearer, then motioned at the half-elf’s foot. “Want me to take a look?”

“Have you been holding out on us and started worshiping a deity?”

“No, but you said you wanted me to make you a nice prosthetic. I’d need to take some measurements before I could do that.”

“I was hoping now that I have what Pike adorably calls a ‘nubbin’ that that might no longer be necessary.”

“Probably. But I’d like to have the measurements ready to go, just in case.”

Percy would be the first to admit that he didn’t have much of a sense of humor. That was okay, because in his opinion neither did Vax. He just hoped his compatriot saw the offered distraction for what it was. Fortunately, after scanning his face intently for a moment, Vax was apparently satisfied with what he saw there and moved to help wriggle his boot off. When his friend winced at the effort, Percy’s hands moved without thinking to help steady Vax’s and hopefully get the boot off with a little less pain.

Vax sighed, slumping back against Trinket, when the job was done and the ruin that was his foot was exposed to the warm cavern air again.

“My alternative idea was to ask Clarota if _he_ knew which mushrooms in the area might do the opposite of poison me,” he said, carrying on as though the entire interlude hadn’t happened. “Or, failing that, if he could strategically eat the part of my brain that’s responsible for feeling pain.”

Percy muffled the laugh that threatened to burst forth by biting down on his fist. It wasn't funny, but nothing was right now. “I wouldn’t do that,” was all he said, when he trusted himself to be back under control.

“Oh, very well. But only because you insisted.”

All was silent for a few moments after that, as Percy used a length of old twine and a charcoal pencil to take some measurements of Vax’s foot and jot them down in his notebook. His touch was light and careful, a relic of first building and then maintaining his guns, so he was pretty sure he didn’t cause Vax any pain in doing so.

Of course, he had to take a guess at some of measurements, since half the foot was still gone. “If only I’d thought to measure your feet while I had the chance.”

Now it was Vax’s turn to muffle a laugh. “Yes, well, let that be a lesson to you for next time. Though I think my sister might have been a tad jealous.”

Percy knew better than to hope Vax couldn’t see him blush, especially when he was sitting this close. Damn half-elves and their damn low-light vision. This time, Vax didn’t even bother to muffle his laughter when he saw this, though this meant he quickly had to soothe Trinket back to sleep as the bear stirred.

“We are terrible night watchmen,” Vax murmured, once the bear was snoring properly again.

Percy nodded. “Just about the worst, yeah.”

“I’m amazed the others aren’t awake yet.”

“They might be, and they’re just being polite about us embarrassing ourselves.”

“My sister, take pity on me? You don’t know us very well, do you, Percival?”

“Maybe not.” He had a feeling that he knew Vax better than he once had, though. He hoped they lived long enough for that to continue. “Do you promise that you’re not going to ask Clarota to eat part of your brain?”

“Do you promise to chop this mess off if I can’t hold back being a noisy nuisance any longer?”

“No.”

“Well, I suppose I’ll still promise the thing about Clarota, because I am a more honorable man than you. I make no such guarantees about mushrooms, though.”

Percy smiled tiredly, and was close enough to see Vax return it. “Good enough,” the gunslinger said.

He set to work helping Vax get his boot back on. Unfortunately, they made so much noise and Vax shifted around so much in doing so that they well and truly woke Trinket up, and no amount of shushing from Vax could get the bear to go back to sleep this time. Vex’s pet would only be satisfied by throwing out a paw and dragging Percy against the bulk of his fur as well. Whether this was to get Percy to be quiet or not, he didn’t know and had no way of asking, much as he struggled and protested against the bear’s determined weight.

Vex’ahlia gave up even pretending to be asleep, at that point. Laughing quietly, Vax’s sister walked over to give Trinket a pat on the head, shove Vax back into a resting position against the bear, and do absolutely nothing to help Percy up.

“You two are adorable,” she said, reaching down to mess up Vax’s hair. He was entirely too slow in swatting her hands away – another sign that he needed to sleep.

“But terrible watchmen,” Percy replied, giving up his struggling and resigning himself to sleep with a big furry paw on his back.

“Absolutely,” Vex agreed, getting up and dusting herself off. “We’re never letting you two stand watch together again.”

“At least we have our looks,” Vax said, sighing theatrically.

He wormed his way under Trinket’s arm alongside Percy, kissed the other man on the cheek, and was apparently asleep within seconds.

Percy found himself too taken aback at that to really even consider sleeping. But in the end, he was forced to admit that there were still worse ways to spend the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Most of my editing was involved in making sure I didn't mix up "Vax" and "Vex" at any given point. But I'm told that gets easier the further you get into the series.


End file.
